Graduates from The Australian National University (ANU) have been ranked Australia’s most employable graduates and are listed among the world’s most sought after employees.

For the fifth consecutive year, ANU was rated number one in Australia in the Times Higher Education, Global University Employability Ranking.

ANU was ranked 21 in the world, up 11 places on 2015 and up one place on 2016, based on the survey of 2,500 recruitment managers from 22 countries and a panel of 3,500 international managers around the world.

ANU was the only Australian university ranked in the top 30 by the Times Higher Education rankings.

Acting ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Harding said the results highlighted the high quality of ANU students and the great teachers who are drawn to ANU from around the world.

“These results show ANU graduates are in high demand by governments, industry and business in Australia and overseas,” Professor Harding said.

“Our global outlook at ANU means we attract some of the best and brightest students, who benefit from our smaller class sizes and our top-quality teachers.

“ANU students also have a global outlook and the University encourages students to seek experience and opportunities to travel overseas as part of their education.

“ANU offers great education and research with a focus on helping to solve some of the great challenges facing the world.

“This all helps ensure ANU graduates are well prepared for the challenges of the modern workforce and ensures they are highly sought after by employers.”

Bachelor of Engineering student Annamalai (Ed) Muthiah will graduate at the end and of the year and has already lined up a two-year graduate position with BAE Systems in 2018.

“I’ve developed a lot of technical skills at ANU. ANU has provided me with the core technical skills and holistic problem solving approach that has allowed me to achieved my childhood dream of building rockets,” Mr Muthiah said.

Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development student, Sumati Maharjan, will start a graduate position at the Department of Social Services in the policy stream in 2018.

“I am really optimistic about the skills and knowledge that I’ve gained at ANU and using them to understand and address some of the challenges and issues in terms of humanitarian conflicts and development practices, policies and implementation, not just in Australia and all over the world by using gender perspective,” Ms Maharjan said.

“I hope to do more research in this area and become a gender expert one day.”

PhD scholar Haihan (Helen) Jiao from The John Curtin School of Medical Research said ANU academics have taught her to challenge herself beyond her limits.

“Studying at ANU is a fantastic experience because it provides us the opportunity to do good research and to form collaborative relationships with other scientists,” she said.

“In the end we are able to develop a holistic set of skills that enable us to tackle a health problem. Studying at ANU has given me the opportunity to build a solid foundation and a great confidence to face what is lying ahead.”

Darius Mic will graduate with a Bachelor of Accounting and Economics at the end of the year, and is looking forward to working at KPMG in 2018.

“At ANU I have been able to learn from lectures who have worked in the private sector, they have a lot of knowledge about what is happening in the world. This has given me great inside into some of the challenges I will face going out into the world,” Mr Mic said.

Alan Wu graduated with a Master of Laws in 2016 and now works for Australia’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

“ANU attracts and nurtures an exceptional cohort of change makers who are curious and open minded and who leave the institution ready to tackle the big issues of our time,” Mr Wu said.